Events

I mean, other than the process of moving, which isn't at all fun, is that I'm giving up access to a yard. The guy painting my new apartment pointed out to me that there are 46 steps from the alley to the third floor, and said this made getting the tarps and things into the place that much less fun. I pointed out to him that I will have to traverse all 46 steps, in every weather, in every state of health, every day, three times a day, because I can't train my dog to use a toilet. As far as Parker will...

For the time being, I'm working on the top floor of the tallest building in Evanston, Ill. The view isn't too bad: The view is mostly north. The white blob in the upper-left corner is the Bahá'í House of Worship in Wilmette.

This morning I dropped Parker off at his new day camp, Urban Outsitters. Everyone was wagging when I left, though Parker seemed a little overwhelmed by the onrush of dogs. I was a little apprehensive, but I think he'll be fine. Do parents feel this way after dropping their kids off at a new school?

Yes, today I had my sixth consecutive flight cancellation. The sky is clear, visibility is 80 km, but the -19°C temperatures and 60 km/h wind gusts are just too much for the ancient Piper Warrior I rent.

Stay tuned.

The City of Evanston, my birthplace, bastion of good government, where I have lived for just over three years, has run out of road salt: [Evanston Public Works chief] David Jennings says that on Wednesday "our salt supplier notified us that they could not honor the balance of our current order, about 1,100 tons, due to difficulties in getting their supply of salt to the distribution point that serves us." Jennings says city crews have stopped salting residential streets, but are continuing to plow....

I think Talking Points Memo is sounding just about the right note of alarm: Attorney General Michael Mukasey...so far [has] dropped two big bombshells. DOJ will not be investigating: (1) whether the waterboarding, now admitted to by the White House, was a crime; or (2) whether the Administration's warrantless wiretapping was illegal. His rationale? Both programs had been signed off on in advance as legal by the Justice Department. We have now the Attorney General of the United States telling Congress...

Via Bruce Schneier, a fourth undersea cable providing Internet connectivity to much of the Middle East has been cut in as many weeks: The first three have been blamed on ships' anchors, but there is some dispute about that. And that's two in the Mediterranean and two in the Persian Gulf. There have been no official reports of malice to me, but it's an awfully big coincidence. The fact that Iran has lost Internet connectivity only makes this weirder. This may not be more important than tonight's primary...

Maria Shriver has endorsed Obama, just a couple of days after her husband, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, endorsed McCain. Interesting.

Yes, this is my 1,000th post since this blog started in November 2005. I had hoped to write a long, introspective essay on blogging in general and this blog in specific over the years, but it turns out I have work to do today, so that will have to wait until the 2,000th post or so. (Many of you are fighting back tears, I know; though I suspect they're tears of joy.) No, today I'm just going to mention the two most immediately relevant things that confronted me on my way to work this morning. First, in...